Colloquium Series, Salon Series, Speaker’s Series, and Special Projects
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February 26, 2:30-3:45pm. The Changing TV Business & Good Media Design.
(Colloquium Series)
A talk by Scott Webb about how he got into the TV business, the history of Nickelodeon and what makes good media design with plenty of show and tell. Location: University Hall, Room 1030
You’ve probably seen Scott Webb’s work. He was Creative Director at Nickelodeon from 1984 to 2000 and helped create the irreverent personality and brand identity of the network. While at Nick, he was part of the team that developed and launched Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., TV Land, The Kid’s Choice Awards, Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy, SpongeBob, Pete and Pete, Blue’s Clues and more. Scott was an integral part of Nick’s explosive growth into movies, theme parks, magazines, TV channel’s around the world and took Nick online in 1995. After Nick, Scott went on to launch Oxygen, College Sports TV (now CBS Sports). In 2009, Webb and partner Tinsley Galyean founded Static-Free Media, an Experience Design and Branding firm that helps companies use media to create powerful relationships with their customers based on the belief that good media can make the world a better place. Their clients include Scholastic, The Hub, Hasbro, OMD, AMC, HLN, the MIT Media Lab and many more. Currently, Static-Free Media is part of a global literacy initiative to help put an end to poverty. This project uses a tablet to enable uneducated children to teach themselves to read, empowering them to become citizens able to make a difference in the world. Scott is a husband, father, Yoga teacher and snow sculptor who lives in Montclair. He’s a media junkie who loves comic books, pop music, Judge Judy and Howard Stern. Register here.
March 4, 10:00-11:15am. Women in Sports Media.
The School of Communication and Media, in collaboration with the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, presents a panel on “Women in Sports Media. “Scheduled panelists include Annie Sundberg, director of the ESPN film on women in sports media, “Let Them Wear Towels,” and Tara Sullivan, sports columnist for The Record and northjersey.com. Associate Professor Marc Rosenweig will be the moderator. Those interested in attending should contact Berra Museum Director Dave Kaplan at kapland@montclair.edu. Location: Yogi Berra Museum.
March 5, 2:30-3:45. An Exploration of the ‘Sandy Storyline’ documentary and the evolving media landscape.
(Colloquium Series)
Michael Premo will discuss the changes in documentary filmmaking and an overview of the ‘Sandy Storyline’ project. The ‘Sandy Storyline’ project is a participatory documentary that collects and shares stories about the impact of Hurricane Sandy on our neighborhoods, our communities and our lives. Location: University Hall, Room 1030.
Michael Premo is an artist, cultural worker and human rights activist. He has created, produced and presented original works of art and media with numerous companies including Hip-Hop Theater Festival, The Foundry Theater, The Civilians, Penny Arcade, Company One, EarSay, Inc., and the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps. He’s a co-creator and Executive Producer of Sandy Storyline (www.sandystoryline.com). The project won the inaugural Transmedia Award from the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. He co-created and collaborates on the multimedia storytelling project Housing is a Human Right (www.housingisahumanright.org), a project connecting diverse communities around housing, land, and the dignity of a place to call home. Stories are shared across multiple platforms including radio, internet and interactive installations in unconventional places.
His radio documentaries have been broadcast internationally and his photography has appeared in numerous outlets including Left Turn, The Village Voice, The New York Times, Narrative.ly, and Het Parool (Holland). He is on the Board of Trustees of the Network of Ensemble Theaters. Fellowships include: NYSCA Individual Artists Award, and the Inaugural 2013 Blade of Grass Fellowship. Register for An Exploration of the ‘Sandy Storyline’ here.
March 25th, 6:00-8:30 p.m. Disruption: Media – Is the future of media bleak or bright?
(Cosponsored by the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship, the School of Communication and Media, and the Center for Cooperative Media).
Location: University Hall, 7th Floor Conference Center
Media is one of the first industries to be disrupted. What lessons can we learn from these seismic changes and how media entities have reacted to them? What is the essence of media today—is it a content business or a service business? How should media companies measure their success? What, if anything, can media learn from Google, Twitter and Facebook? Is the future of media bleak or bright? Join us for an exciting evening as media experts debate these questions, and more. Featuring a keynote discussion between Jeff Jarvis, author and media consultant, and Merrill Brown, director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Event also includes a panel of media experts, moderated by Merrill Brown, to discuss these issues. Register for Disruption: Media here.
Panelists include:
Jeff Jarvis, author and media consultant
John Mooney, founder and editor of NJ Spotlight
Paul Maidment, principal and editor-in-chief of Bystander Media
Steven Waldman, journalist, entrepreneur, digital content pioneer
March 26, 2:30-3:45 p.m. Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age.
(Colloquium Series)
A conversation with George Brock who will explore the future of journalism and how it needs to adapt to maintain its place of relevance. Location: University Hall, Room 1030.
George Brock is Professor at London’s City University, where he heads the prestigious Graduate School of Journalism. During his career as a journalist, he worked for the Observer and The Times, where he was Foreign Editor, Managing Editor, Saturday Editor and (most recently) International Editor. He has served as president of the World Editors Forum, and chairs the British Committee of the International Press Institute. He is a regular commentator on news and journalism in the UK and global media, and broadcasts frequently. He is an active conference speaker and reviewer. Brock will discuss his latest book Out of Print which examines the past, present and future of a fragile newspaper industry battling a “perfect storm” of falling circulations, reduced advertising revenue, rising print costs and the impact of citizen journalism and free news aggregators. He examines perhaps the greatest implosion, the effectiveness of the business model of large, general-interest daily papers which require news reporting to be subsidized by advertising revenue. But Brock affirms that although the traditional press may have a problem, journalism still has a bright future. Register for Out of Print here.
March 27, 8:00-9:30 p.m. A Conversation with the New Yorker‘s Ken Auletta: Tales from the Front Lines of the Media Revolution.
(Cosponsored by the Albert Payson Terhune Foundation, the English Department and the School of Communication and Media)
This year’s speaker, Ken Auletta of The New Yorker, has been an acute observer and analyst of journalism and the media for many years and has written extensively about a variety of issues. Auletta has written Annals of Communications columns and profiles for The New Yorker magazine since 1992. He is the author of eleven books, including five national bestsellers: Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way; Greed And Glory On Wall Street: The Fall of The House of Lehman; The Highwaymen: Warriors of the Information Super Highway; World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies; and Googled, The End of the World As We Know It, which was published in November of 2009. His other books include: Backstory: Inside the Business of News; Media Man: Ted Turner’s Improbable Empire; The Streets Were Paved with Gold; and The Underclass. Chapin Hall (John J. Cali School of Music), Leshowitz Recital Hall. Register for A Conversation with Ken Auletta here.
April 11, 1:00-2:15 p.m. Keepin’ it REAL or How I Learned to Do Science and Practice in Diverse Communities.
(Colloquium Series)
A presentation by Dr. Michael Hecht who will discuss the keepin it REAL drug prevention curriculum as well as other applied projects that have addressed major public health issues. The presentation will explore the application of multicultural narrative strategies to promote healthier behavior. Location: University Hall, Room 1030.
Michael L. Hecht (PhD, University of Illinois) is a Distinguished Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State University and President of REAL Prevention, LLC. Dr. Hecht specializes in health message design for culturally diverse communities. The keepin’ it REAL drug prevention curriculum was based on his team’s studies of the social processes of drug offers. The multicultural, narrative-based lessons proved effective in reducing drug use. Since its adoption by D.A.R.E. America, keepin’ it REAL is believed to be the most widely disseminated substance use prevention program in the world, reaching 2 million U.S. youth as well as those in 47 countries around the world. Hecht is currently involved in adapting prevention messages for youth in Nicaragua and Tanzania, and he is working collaboratively with community-based US organizations like Planned Parenthood and the 4H clubs to developed culturally grounded health promotion messages. Register for Keepin’ it REAL here.
April 16, 2:30-3:45 p.m. Communication and Media: The View from the Ice.
(Colloquium Series)
A presentation by John Dellapina, Group Vice President, Communications, NHL. Location: University Hall, Room 1030.
John Dellapina has spent 25 years as a sports writer. Raised in New York, Mr. Dellapina attended the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, he covered local college sports for the Philadelphia Daily News. Subsequently, John covered sports for the York Daily Record, the Middletown Times-Herald Record, where he covered all four major New York City sports and events. After that, John moved to the Bergen Record, covering the New Jersey Devils. He then joined the Daily News, where he continued to cover the New Jersey Devils until 1994. After that, Mr. Dellapina began covering the New York Rangers, which he did until his departure from the Daily News in 2008. John joined the NHL in September of 2008, and he is now the Group Vice President, in charge of Communications. He also focuses on various all-access shows, such as “24/7” and “NHL Revealed,” as well as media and club relations.
April 30, 2:30-3:45 p.m. Leaders in the Digital Media Industry.
(Colloquium Series)
A presentation by Mike Rich, Chief Product Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Interactive One, who will discuss his current position and prior experiences working in digital media. Location: University Hall, Room 1030.
Mike Rich joined Interactive One in July 2010 as Chief Product & Operating Officer, a role focused on driving the direction and strategy for Interactive One’s network of sites and brands. Additionally, he collaborates to help lead a differentiated multi-platform digital offering across radio, video and mobile, in partnership with Interactive One’s parent company, Radio One. Mr. Rich comes to Interactive One from AOL, where as SVP and GM of AOL Entertainment, he oversaw interactive product strategy, management, marketing, editorial, audience development and syndication for AOL’s flagship properties, including AOL Music. Under his leadership, AOL Music grew to be the #1 music destination and maintained this status from 2007 to 2009. Additionally, Rich was responsible for AOL BlackVoices, Moviefone, AOL Radio, AOL Latino, and AOL Studios, which produced original high-quality video content for AOL’s suite of sites. Mr. Rich was honored by Hollywood Reporter as part of their 2009 Digital Power 50 list of executives leading the digital media industry. Register for Leaders in the Digital Media Industry here.
Fall 2013
Colloquium Series, Salon Series, Speakers’ Series,
and Special Projects
(For Film Forum, go to Fall 2013 Film Forum Schedule)
September 25, 2:30-3:45 p.m. The Fight for Democracy: Improving Media at the Local and National Levels
(Colloquium Series)
A roundtable discussion with Tim Karr of FreePress and Chuck Lovey of Voice for New Jersey, moderated by Debra Galant, Director of NJ News Commons. Location: Richardson Hall, Room 120.
October 2, 2013, LGBT Issues in Sports
(Special Projects)
SCM sponsored a panel discussion “LGBT Issues in Sports” at the Yogi Berra Museum Museum and Learning Center. Panelists included Jane McManus from espnnewyork.com, Jared Max, former ESPN New York and WCBS radio reporter and host, plus Athlete Ally founder Hudson Taylor. The panel discussed the issues facing the LGBT community in sports, including a discussion of the controversy surrounding the upcoming Winter Olympics in Russia, where a law bans “homosexual propaganda.” (Pictured from left to right: SCM Professor Marc Rosenweig, Jane McManus from espnnewyork.com, former ESPN New York and WCBS radio reporter and host Jared Max, and Athlete Ally founder Hudson Taylor.)
October 9, 2013, 2:30-4 p.m. Brooke Hammerling, Founder,
Brew Media Relations
(Colloquium Series)
Brooke Hammerling is a Public Relations maven at Brew Media Relations, an aggressive PR firm with a who’s who of startup luminaries, including GroupMe, Zong, Bluefin Labs, Adaptly, and WordPress. Register for Brooke Hammerling here.
October 9, 2013, 8-9:30 p.m. Crisis in American Criminal Justice System: The Cycle of Injustice From Arrest and Incarceration to Re-entry
(Salon Series)
Featured panelists include: Dawn Porter, David Fathi, and Jessica S. Henry. A clip from “Gideon’s Army”will start the program. Merrill Brown, Director of the School of Communication and Media, will moderate the evening. The event is free and open to the public.
Location: University Hall Conference Center
For further information: Contact Emily Eldridge (973-979-7933) or Stephanie Wood (woods@montclair.edu.)
October 22, 2013, 1-2:15 p.m. The Inside Story Behind the Daily Show
(Colloquium Series)
A lively conversation between Kahane Cooperman, the co-executive producer of The Daily Show and Merrill Brown, Director of the School of Communication and Media. Location: University Hall, Room 1070
Kahane Cooperman is the co-executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She has been with the show since its inception in 1996, serving as field producer, senior producer and supervising producer before becoming the co-executive producer in 2005. For her work on the show, she has received eight Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards. Kahane began her career as a documentary filmmaker. Her documentary Making Dazed, about the cult-classic feature film Dazed and Confused, was broadcast on AMC in September 2005 and was released on a Criterion Collection DVD in 2006. Additional work includes producing the documentary feature Heidi Fleiss Hollywood Madam, directed by Nick Broomfield, for the BBC and HBO. Her documentary skills were honed at Maysles Films in New York, where she worked for the team of veteran filmmakers from 1988 to 1993. Her documentary film Cool Water premiered at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival. After earning her undergraduate degree in English from the University of Chicago, she received an MFA from Columbia University in film directing and screenwriting. Register for The Inside Story Behind the Daily Show here.
October 30, 2013, 2:30-4 p.m. Smarter than the Storm.
(Colloquium Series)
Documentary filmmaker Ben Kalina will screen excerpts from his film ‘Shored Up’ that examines coastal development and rising sea levels in the U.S. Kalina will discuss the process of making the documentary and the issues it raises. Location: Richardson Hall, Room 120
Ben Kalina is a documentary filmmaker whose interests are situated at the juncture of science, the environment and the human experience on the front lines of climate change. His current documentary, Shored Up, is about coastal development and rising sea levels in the U.S. in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and will be nationally broadcast on DirecTV beginning on October 24th. He was the Associate Producer of A Sea Change, the acclaimed documentary about ocean acidification broadcast on Discovery’s Planet Green in 2009, and Two Square Miles, about a small town’s fight to prevent a coal-fired cement plant from building in their midst, broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens in 2006. He has won awards for his films Diorama, Education on the Rosebud Reservation and Radical Notions, including grand prize awards at film festivals in the United States and Europe. Ben has an MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University and a BA from Vassar College. Register here.
November 6, 2013, 2:30-4 p.m. Covering Misdeeds whether on Wall Street
or at the NCAA.
(Colloquium Series)
A conversation with New York Times Columnist Joe Nocera who will discuss the experience of covering financial scandals involving major financial and university institutions. Location: Richardson Hall, Room 120
Joe Nocera is an Op-Ed columnist. Before joining The Opinion Pages in April 2011, he wrote the Talking Business column for The New York Times each Saturday and was a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine. In addition to his work at The Times, he serves as a regular business commentator for NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. Before joining The Times in 2005, Mr. Nocera spent 10 years at Fortune Magazine, where he held a variety of positions, including contributing writer, editor-at-large and executive editor. His last position at Fortune was editorial director.
Mr. Nocera has won three Gerald Loeb awards, including the 2008 award for commentary, and three John Hancock awards for excellence in business journalism. A 2007 Pulitzer finalist, he is the author of three books. “A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class,” (Touchstone, 1995) won the New York Public Library’s 1995 Helen Bernstein Award as the best non-fiction book of the year. He has also written “Good Guys and Bad Guys: Behind The Scenes With The Saints and Scoundrels of American Business (and Everything In Between)” (Portfolio, 2008), and, most recently, “All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis (Portfolio 2010), which he co-authored with Bethany McLean. Register for Covering Misdeeds here.
November 12, 2013, 2:30-3:45 p.m. Television News in the Digital Era.
(Colloquium Series)
A conversation between David Westin, digital media advisor and former President of ABC News and Merrill Brown, Director of the School of Communication and Media on the influence of television news on public engagement in the digital age. Location: University Hall, Room 1010
David Westin is the author of Exit Interview, the story of what went on behind the scenes at ABC News during the 14 years he was president, covering stories from the death of Princess Diana to the impeachment of a president to the tie election of 2000 to 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and New York. Westin currently advises companies on digital and media issues. He was President & CEO of NewsRight, which he helped found in 2011 with the support of the AP and 28 news company investors, including the Associated Press, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Hearst, and Germany’s Axel Springer.
From 1997 through the end of 2010, Westin was President of ABC News. During that time, he oversaw coverage of President Clinton’s impeachment, the 2000 election, the 9/11 attacks, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the economic crisis of 2008. At the same time, the television news industry was undergoing fundamental change, with the advent of Fox News and MSNBC and the explosive growth of the Internet. Under his direction, ABC News launched its website, ABCNews.com; started the first live, streaming 24-hour news service, ABC News Now; and transformed the ways that it collected, produced, and reported the news through extensive use of digital technology. During Westin’s tenure, ABC News earned 11 George Foster Peabody Awards, 13 Alfred I. DuPont Awards, four George Polk Awards, more than 40 News & Documentary Emmys, and more than 40 Edward R. Murrow Awards. Register for Television News in the Digital Era here.
November 20, 2013, 2:30-4 p.m. Lance Gould, Executive Education Director for Huffington Post
(Colloquium Series)
This colloquium session will be hosted by Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey and features a discussion with Huffington Post Senior Editor Lance Gould. Sacirbey and Gould will discuss how new media is changing the way nations interact and how average citizens can now have direct impact on world politics. Location: University Hall, Room 1020
Gould and Ambassador Mo met twenty years ago at the United Nations as a journalist and diplomat respectively. It was a time of great tumult as the old Iron Curtain had collapsed and the former Yugoslavia was disintegrating in a series of conflicts and genocide (Ambassador Sacirbey represented Bosnia & Herzegovina at the UN). Traditional diplomacy was already losing its hold in favor of more transparency and public outreach. Today, journalism is undergoing rapid transformation and diplomacy has gone mainstream through the new media and revolution in communication. The Huffington Post has become a compelling platform that, and along with social media, offers citizens the possibility of greater interaction and access to international political and intellectual leaders.
Lance Gould is Executive Special Projects Editor for The Huffington Post (AOL). As Op-ed editor, he is responsible for making sure content on HuffPost blog platform reflects zeitgeist/news Cycle (Oklahoma tornadoes, Boston-marathon bombing, Syria, “Breaking Bad,” etc.), as well as forming blog-series partnerships with major partners, such as: White House, Clinton Global Initiative, United Nations, World Economic Forum, Aspen Institute, (RED), hundreds of US college/university presidents, NBA/NFL/MLB, etc. He is also a speaker/moderator at various panels/events (United Nations Youth Assembly; Aspen Institute’s Franklin Project; Education for Employment’s forum on youth unemployment in Middle East; etc.). Gould has served as Editor in Chief of the Boston Phoenix and Deputy Managing Editor of the New York Daily News.
December 11, 2013, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Kristine Johnson, CBS anchor
(Colloquium Series)
Location: University Hall, Conference Center, 7th Floor
On Friday morning December 6, CBS2 anchor Kristine Johnson will visit Montclair State to receive the Allen B. DuMont Broadcaster of the Year Award and participate in the SCM colloquium series. She will discuss her career and the state of broadcast journalism, both currently and the outlook for the future.
Kristine Johnson currently co-anchors the 5 p.m. & 11 p.m. news at the CBS owned and operated station in New York City. She joined CBS 2 in the fall of 2006. Since then, she has been nominated for several Emmy Awards and had the honor of winning seven trophies. Kristine has navigated her viewers through numerous breaking news events. Most recently she logged 10-12-hour days behind the anchor desk covering Hurricane Sandy and the blizzard of 2013. She also covered live stories ranging from Pope Benedict’s visit to the Big Apple to the miracle landing on the Hudson. Kristine has field anchored several historic events, including breaking news coverage from ground zero after the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden and the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks with former President George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama in attendance. She broadcasted live in the days following the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. And she traveled to Boston to broadcast live following the bombings at the Boston Marathon. CBS has called upon Kristine to guest co-host the daytime talk show “The Talk” from time to time. She also played the role of a news anchor (a real stretch!) on episodes of the CBS hit primetime shows “Person of Interest” and “Elementary.” Register for Kristine Johnson here.